Bruntingthorpe Festival of Cycling: AA Brown Engineering Circuit Race report and results

We would like to thank all who joined us on Sunday for the AA Brown Road Race.

A sunny but blustery day at Bruntingthorpe was always going to make the race tough, and within the first few laps a front 3 had formed consisting of Ed Grandidge, Carl Dyson & Julian Rathbone. A large group of riders remained as the main bunch together behind with those who missed the decisive move making attempts to bridge over. The wind was too strong however with the front 3 working well and managing to hit 35mph down the back straight they were not seen again by the peloton.

As the race took its toll the bunch disintegrated towards the end of the race with conditions proving to brutal for it to stay together. Aggressive and great tactics from Harriet Evans, Rhys Thomas and Tony Carter were able to ensure that the group fully split up into fragments in the final laps.

Up in front, a cross wind attack by Ed Grandidge to distance his breakaway companions with two laps to go nearly paid off, however Carl Dyson was able to pull Ed back in the tail wind. Julian riding a sterling race was able to ride himself back into the front on the final lap giving his companions another element to think about for the sprint finish.

It was Ed Grandidge who was able to come out on top for the win though in a very exciting finish.  Carl Dyson won the AA Brown Trophy as 1^st place first claim Welland Valley CC member. Harriet Evans (WVCC) was the 1^st Female rider.

We would like to thank our tremendous hosts and sponsors Cox Automotive and AA Brown Engineering for helping us to deliver a fantastic race to round off the first Bruntingthorpe Festival of Cycling.

From inside the peloton a report from WVCC Youth Development rider  Jamie Kershaw below:

“The race was really fun and it was good to learn from it started off with a few attacks and people trying to follow others, I tried a few attacks myself but I was riding with my U14 restricted gearing and found it hard to keep in front down the straight.  With about 5 laps to go I ended up riding on my own until with about 2 laps to go I got caught by a solo rider and we worked till the finish line and I just managed to beat him to the line for 9th place and my dad got 8th”

Michael Burke

1 Ed Grandidge

2 Carl Dyson

3 Julian Rathbone

4 Rhys Thomas

5 Harriet Evans

6 Tony Carter (SDL Wonga)

7 Andy Deeks

8 Nik Kershaw

9 Jamie Kershaw

10 Richard Krause

11 Fraser Ayears

12 Stuart Dawkins

13 Austin Smith

14 Ashley  Easton

15 Chris Dainty

16 Roger Kockelbergh

17 Cameron Potter

18 Andrew  Ayears

19 Victor Barnett

20 Kamila Leska

21 Ruby  Isaac

22 John Buxton (Coalville Wheelers)

23 Raymond Taylor

DNF Harry Khalid

DNF Nick Clarke

DNF Stuart Haycox

DNF Eleanor Humphries

DNF Mark Chapman

DNF David Reay